Molitor ex frumento bonam farinam facit.

Latin usually has no definite or indefinite article. So molitor can mean miller, a miller, or the miller, depending on context.

In this sentence, you understand it from the overall meaning rather than from a word like the or a.

Molitor is in the nominative singular, which is the case normally used for the subject of the sentence.

It is the person doing the action of facit (makes), so molitor = the miller is the subject.

Also, the verb facit is third person singular, which matches a singular subject.

Because ex is a preposition meaning out of or from, and it requires the ablative case.

So:

• frumentum = grain, wheat, corn (dictionary form, nominative/accusative)
• frumento = ablative singular
• ex frumento = from grain / out of grain

This is a very common Latin pattern:

• ex
  • ablative

Frumentum often means grain in a general sense, especially cereal grain. Depending on context, it can also be translated more specifically as wheat or sometimes corn in older English translations.

For a learner, grain is usually the safest basic meaning here.

Because bonam is an adjective modifying fariam, and adjectives in Latin must agree with the nouns they describe in:

• gender
• number
• case

Here:

• fariam is feminine singular accusative
• so bonam must also be feminine singular accusative

That is why both end in -am.

Because bonam farinam is the direct object of facit.

The verb facit means makes, and the thing being made is good flour. A direct object takes the accusative case in Latin.

So:

• bona farina = good flour as a nominative phrase
• bonam farinam = good flour as an accusative phrase

Since the flour is what the miller makes, Latin uses bonam farinam.

We know from both meaning and form.

By meaning:

• the miller makes something
• what he makes is good flour

By form:

• bonam farinam is in the accusative
• the direct object of an active transitive verb is commonly accusative in Latin

So the sentence structure is:

• Molitor = subject
• ex frumento = prepositional phrase
• bonam farinam = direct object
• facit = verb

Facit is:

• present tense
• active voice
• indicative mood
• third person singular

It comes from the verb facio, facere, feci, factum = to make, do

So facit means:

• he/she/it makes
• or sometimes does, depending on context

Here it means makes.

Latin word order is more flexible than English word order because Latin uses case endings to show each word’s role.

Putting the verb at or near the end is very common in Latin, though not required.

So:

• Molitor ex frumento bonam farinam facit
• literally: The miller from grain good flour makes

In natural English, we rearrange it:

• The miller makes good flour from grain.

Yes, often they could.

For example, these would still mean essentially the same thing:

• Ex frumento molitor bonam farinam facit.
• Bonam farinam molitor ex frumento facit.
• Molitor bonam farinam ex frumento facit.

Because the endings show the grammatical roles:

• molitor = subject
• frumento = ablative after ex
• bonam farinam = direct object
• facit = verb

However, changing the order can change emphasis or style.

Often yes, but more literally ex means out of or from within.

In this sentence, ex frumento suggests making flour out of grain, which fits the idea very well.

Latin also has other words that can be translated from, such as a/ab and de, but they are not used in exactly the same way.

Molitor is a third-declension noun.

Its nominative singular is molitor, and its genitive singular is molitoris.

That helps explain why the nominative singular does not end in -us, even though it is masculine and means miller.

Yes. Farina, farinae is a first-declension feminine noun meaning flour.

Its accusative singular is farinam, which is the form used here because it is the direct object.

So:

• farina = nominative singular
• farinam = accusative singular

Because Latin adjectives usually stay closely connected to the nouns they describe, even though word order is flexible.

Here bonam clearly modifies farinam because it agrees with it in:

• feminine
• singular
• accusative

So even if the two words were separated, the matching endings would still show the connection.

Yes. The verb facio is very common and can mean do, make, cause, produce, and several related ideas depending on context.

In this sentence, since the object is flour, makes is the natural translation:

• The miller makes good flour from grain.

Using does here would sound wrong in English, even though facio can sometimes mean do in other sentences.